Tag Archives: chang’e-3

The ESA and CNSA teams at ESOC celebrating today as Chang’E-3 lands on the lunar surface. Signal recording via ESA’s New Norcia and Cebreros deep-space tracking stations will continue until 19:45 UTC, to obtain data that will help pinpoint the lander’s position on the Moon. Well done, team!

The Estrack teams at ESOC will be on console today to track the descent of the Chang’E-3a lander and rover, followed by surface radio location support to the lander. Read our full report in the ESA website: ESA teams ready for Moon landing Engineers will also be working on site at New Norcia (NNO) and Cebreros (CEB) stations in Australia and Spain. At ESOC, work began just after 11:00 CET this morning, with engineers staffing the Estrack control room to conduct some final verification checks on the network connections to NNO and CEB. NNO’s tracking of the descent (open-loop recording) starts at 13:26 CET and will continue through the lunar-descent phase to...

On Saturday, 14 December, ESA’s 35m deep space station at New Norcia, Western Australia, will support the descent and surface operations of China’s Chang’E-3 lander. Details later. Tracking support begins at 11:41 UT (12:41 CET) and continues until 18:30 UT (19:30 CET). More details later.

The title reads: Ōuzhōu kōngjiānjú zhù Zhōngguó dēngyuè: Cǎijí rènwù xìnhào, according to Google Translate as updated by my Estrack colleague Erik Soerensen! He says this means: Europe (欧洲, Ōuzhōu) Space Agency (空间局, kōngjiānjú) help (助, zhù) China (中国, Zhōngguó) to go to the moon (登月, dēngyuè): Collect (采集, Cǎijí) job (任务 rènwù) signal (信号xìnhào) This is quite possibly the first time one of our ESA web articles has been translated into Madarin in its entirety and posted in a major web portal! This text is (well, appears to be) the Chinese version of Helping China to the Moon. Cool!

Update from ESOC: We picked up signals from Chang’E-3 via Kourou station a bit earlier than planned, at 19:34:20 CET. Our Chinese colleagues confirm the mission is progressing extremely well, and in fact BACC mission control centre has just informed ESOC that the our network tracking support for today has been downgraded to ‘shadow’ tracking only. In other words, they are getting excellent contact via several other stations and don’t need our Kourou station (for now). ESA’s Kourou station is set again provide tracking support during the lunar cruise phase, starting again on 4 December, running through 5, 6 and 7 December.

China’s Chang’E-3 will be above the centre of this map when our Kourou station receives first signals, planned for 18:36:59 UTC (19:36:59). The Moon mission will be above 242.2DEG E & 27.9DEG S. View Larger Map

Kourou station now active; Estrack station engineering team on site already. Team will now configure Kourou station and conduct a data flow test with the Estrack Control Centre located at ESOC. BACC confirms launch set for 17:30 UTC; Kourou expects to acquire signals at 18:36:59 UT, when Chang’E-3 is 19,000 km from the antenna.

Did you read the ESA news on Friday: Helping China to the Moon? If so, you’ll know that later today, our Estrack network will provide crucial tracking support to the Chang’e-3 mission. You should read the full report, but here’s the main point: China’s Chang’e-3, named after the mythological goddess of the Moon, is scheduled for lift off on 1 December from the Xichang launch base in China’s Sichuan province on a journey to deposit a lander and a six-wheeled rover on the lunar surface. Immediately after liftoff, ESA’s station in Kourou, French Guiana, will start receiving signals from the mission and uploading commands on behalf of the Chinese control centre. ESA’s...